ITALIAN AMERICAN STEREOTYPES IN U.S. ADVERTISING
The following is a random sampling of commercials and print ads
featuring Italian American characters, or Mafia-related themes, that were seen nationally between 1999 and 2003.
• LYCOS INTERNET SEARCH ENGINE TV COMMERCIAL
As a mandolin plays Italian music in the background, an older man carries furniture up the steps of a brownstone apartment while his dark-haired daughter and grandchild look on. He tells his daughter that the furniture “fell off a truck.”
In the next scene, more furniture is being moved in, but the daughter holds up a bill of sale so that FBI agents in a parked car nearby can see that she bought it on the Internet, using Lycos.
• RAGU RICH & MEATY MEAT SAUCE PRINT AD
Graphic shows three butchers with olive complexions scowling into the camera. Behind them hang sausages and a salami. “We asked these butchers what they thought of our new meat sauce,” the ad reads. “They beat us up.”
• UNCLE BEN’S PASTA BOWL PRINT AD
“If you eat an Uncle Ben’s pasta bowl,” the ad reads, “don’t be urprised ifa youa starta talking likea this afterwards.”
• BUDWEISER BEER TV COMMERCIAL
Several swarthy men in an Italian restaurant ask each other “Howya doin’?” and “Didcha take care a dat ting?”
• OPTIMUM ONLINE COMMERCIAL
An African American woman is having her refrigerator repaired by a dark, hairy, white man named “Joe.” The woman asks how much the job will cost. “Two hundred dollars,” he replies. When she checks on Optimum Online, she learns it only costs $25.
• THE INTERNATIONAL DAIRY FOOD TV COMMERCIAL
“Vinny” and a friend try to break the bones of a man who owes them money, but since the intended victim drinks milk, they can't hurt him.
• THE INTERNATIONAL DAIRY FOOD TV COMMERCIAL
Four dark, heavy, hairy young men wearing gold chains menace a group of senior citizen men in a diner. The elderly men route the bullies because milk makes them strong.
• STACKER 2 DIET PILLS TV COMMERCIAL
As an Italian melody plays, a man enters a store with two bodyguards and a buxom blonde. Peppering his speech with “capisci,” he strong-arms another customer and the store clerk.
• RAGU PASTA SAUCE TV COMMERCIAL
Several elderly, overweight Italian American women in housedresses are so delighted with Ragu’s meat sauce that they turn somersaults and play leapfrog in a meadow. The camera zooms in on the generous proportions of one woman's rear quarters and the bloomers of another.
• BUITONI PASTA TV COMMERCIAL
A very old, very wrinkled woman, dressed in black, drags her overweight adult son by the ear through the streets to a supermarket where she berates him in English and Italian for selling the secret family pasta recipe to Buitoni.
• RUBBERMAID TV COMMERCIAL
Five older women dressed in black with their hair in buns dance a Tarantella because the new Rubbermaid containers do not stain when they put tomato sauce in them.
• TODAY’S MAN TV COMMERCIAL
An Italian woman goes through her husband’s closet, yelling at him about the state of his wardrobe. The husband, who is supposed to be Michael Corleone of “The Godfather,” stares coldly at her as she rants.
• AT&T BROADBAND TV COMMERCIAL
A teacher warns a student that he will fail her class because his assignment is late. Two characters from “The Sopranos” appear and threaten the teacher if the student doesn’t receive an “A.”
• BLISTEX TV COMMERCIAL
A swarthy man in a black suit asks another man if he took care of “that thing.” The lackey pulls out a tube of lip balm, but his boss tells him only Blixtex supplies the protection he needs. “Believe me, I know about protection,” he says.
• EVEREADY BATTERY TV COMMERCIAL
A photographer’s camera battery dies during the birthday party of a mobster’s child. The photographer is stuffed into a tuba.
• GODFATHER’S PIZZA PRINT AD
Ad presents a man dressed in a pinstripe suit, black shirt, white tie and a fedora. Ad reads: “Stay home with da family” in large letters and features a coupon for a pizza dubbed “the Mob Pleaser.”
• INFOSEEK TV COMMERCIAL
To promote Infoseek’s Internet services, commercial presents a mini-drama in which mobsters accuse a man of being part of the CIA.
• JERRY’S SUBS & PIZZA RADIO COMMERCIAL
An actor impersonating Tony Soprano threatens a Jerry Subs storeowner who is competing with a pizzeria owned by the gangster’s friend. After tasting Jerry’s pizza, the gangster offers to take the owner for a ride on his boat.
• NETFLIX.COM TV COMMERCIAL
Mobsters conspire to discuss what to do with a dead body. The commercial is promoting DVD rentals.
• ROUND-UP HERBICIDE TV COMMERCIAL
Voice-over announces that the product will “kill off the Weed Family.” The Weed mobsters, speaking with exaggerated New York accents, air their fears of being killed.
• SHOPPERS DRUG MART TV COMMERCIAL
A man refuses to shake hands with a sick Mafia “Godfather.”
• SUPERIOR QUICK DRY CEMENT TV COMMERCIAL
“Jack gets a permanent vacation” during a boat ride with mobsters who use the cement product to “bury” Jack at sea.
• TCI/AT&T TV COMMERCIAL
To promote its digital cable service, advertiser presents a Mafia boss questioning a “not so Wiseguy.”
• VANILLA COKE TV COMMERCIAL
Actor Chazz Palminteri, reprising his role as mob boss Sonny in “A Bronx Tale,” threatens a nosy young man, who has peeked behind a fence. The gangster rewards the young man’s curiosity, however, with a can of the new Vanilla Coke.
• VERMONT TEDDY BEAR PRINT AD
For Valentine’s Day, the company offers a “Gangster of Love” bear, wearing spats, a fedora and carrying a violin case. Ad reads: “Be a goodfella. Send her this bear and she’ll be singing like a soprano.”
• VITAMIN SHOPPE TV COMMERCIAL
As gangsters “sell” products, a voice over warns, “Make sure you know who you’re dealing with online.”
― and what, Friday, 18 May 2007 17:57 (nineteen years ago)
one year passes...
four years pass...